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so, what are they saying and dont you want to help influence the discussion? If so, then, you need to effectively use social media.
2012. Audience Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
But, there are more reasons to engage with constituents on social media.
Twitter
YouTube LinkedIn
Google+
Flickr Blog Talk Radio
Blogs
Wikipedia
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
But, before you get started, here are 10 Constituent Rules of Engagement you should know
And, now, the very basics of using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn
Facebook
Set up Facebook Profiles, Pages, Groups or Causes and make them social search (keyword) optimized. Share your legislative initiatives, your votes, key issues of concern in your district or in the state. Ask constituents to share their concerns, ideas, opinions and values then RESPOND; this is a discussion platform. Share personal (carefully!), business or political content or news and values. Conduct polls and rally supporters around particular causes. Announce appearances, specific legislative activities, town hall meetings or other events. Post podcasts, photos and videos (but dont forget to give them captions or descriptions and tag people).
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Facebook (contd)
Share internal content created by your organization and external content created by outside sources. Dont just post content about yourself; post or allow posting of constituent or supporter content. Ask and answer questions (including hard ones that may get answers you dont like), start discussions, respond to posts, deal with detractors. Give constituents and supporters ways to connect with you (invite to events, the State Capitol, call times, etc.). Let them know youre available to hear their concerns. Be authentic and transparent. Be natural. Be approachable. Be relevant.
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Twitter
Its a microblogging site thats not much different to use than texting. In fact, you can tweet from your smart phone. You share information about yourself, your agenda with your constituents and information from them with followers in under 140 characters. Share links to valuable content. Find and follow constituents and supporters; share their tweets by retweeting. Retweeting encourages people to follow you and retweet your content.
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Twitter (contd)
Find and follow members of the media and tweet press releases; develop relationships with news organizations and journalists. (Useful for publicity.) Share photos of your events and activities, videos you made about what youre doing or of press interviews you got; audio recordings, including podcasts. Do tweetup events, live tweeting of town halls or tweet meets town halls to connect with constituents and supporters. Remember that twitter is about conversations, not just pushing your own content, initiatives, ideas or opinions.
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
YouTube
Share pre-recorded videos and conduct live events. Create and upload messages in response to other legislators, state officials or the governors speeches or announcements. Share segments of sessions where youve introduced legislation, have presented (or have been presented), commendations, awards, proclamations, made important announcements, etc. Share content made by or for supporting or opposing legislators and respond to detractors, media reports.
YouTube (contd)
Share constituent and supporter videos of outside events created by them, media or your staff. Make use of the Favorites and Playlist features to collect and share other users videos on your channel. Link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your YouTube Channel to share content across platforms. Share video content directly from YouTube in emails and on your website. Keep adding fresh content to your YouTube Channel; add new content at least several times a month. New content doesnt always mean your own but it should be yours most of the time.
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is primarily for business networking and many small business owners and nonprofits use it. Perceived by some as more professional than Facebook so more comfortable for these constituents and supporters to use. Most of you are entrepreneurs who understand their issues so connect with those constituents and supporters here. Join groups that your constituents and supporters are members of to monitor their interests, concerns, opinions and values. Do research by using Answers or posting questions to groups to ask specific questions about small business and nonprofit issues, social concerns, political issues, etc.
2012. Audience Matters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
LinkedIn (contd)
Post your own blog articles (if you blog for business) and other content created by you. Use for your business activities not just legislative affairs as a way for constituents and supporters to learn about you, professionally. Create a profile with a full work/business history, start a Company page, follow other professionals, experts, strategists and legislators. Build your credibility by learning and leveraging the platforms features.
A Final Word
In politics, social media can be used as: A marketing tool. A conversation with constituents and supporters. A gauge of your civic responsibility. Any or all of the above, depending on an organization or legislators political strategy or requirements. However, regardless of the social media tool used, the message (and its dissemination methods) remains the most critical part of any political messaging strategy.